ETC

Syndication

Thanks for your enthusiasm over Hansel & Gretal! I plan to write up the pattern and post it soon.

Post MDS&W, I felt overwhelmed by my fiber options and had a hard time figuring out what I wanted to spin. So many great choices, but also so many not-to-be-wasted choices as well. I didn't want to fritter away the cormo/alpaca or merino/silk, or (gasp) the cashmere/silk, but I wasn't in the mood to be overly focused and attentive to do these fibers justice. In the end, a non MDS&W blended batt pulled me off the fence:

dyed mohair locks, dyed silk, dyed corriedale cross / silk

Pretty colors, no?

The batt (on the right) was a sample that came with my Forsyth combs that I ordered a few weeks ago from Heidi at The Artful Ewe:

Heidi's prices on the combs and clamp are the best I've seen. The clamp was back ordered so I asked her to hold the order, and while waiting, I succumbed to several pounds of sale-priced natural blue faced leicester and corriedale cross. And cashmere:

sooo soooft

And then forgot. Until I got back from MDS&W and got an email that my order was ready. Heh. I have a lot of fiber.

Heidi was great to work with, and included generous samples to accompany my generous order. :) In addition to the above, she sent:

And my jaw literally dropped to the floor when she told me this was the view out her front door:

Sooo jealous.

Heidi has a workshop / dye studio and her shop reminded me of London-Wul in New Brunswick where another Heidi taught me to spin last fall. I wished I lived closer!

Incidentally, London-Wul Heidi has started a blog and is having an amazing contest. Go check it out! See, I'm sharing the love. It means less chance for me to win, so if you win, throw me a bone.

Speaking of new blogs, Lucy at Mind's Eye Yarns in Cambridge started up a blog and etsy store. You might know Lucy from her appearance on the Harlots' blog. Last week I was in town for a doctor's appointment and decided to take advantage of city-proximity and stopped in for their weekly spin-in. I had a lovely time! It was my first time hanging out with my wheel. BASD meetings have always had some kind of workshop so it's never been just hanging out. I liked just hanging out.

So yeah, the spinning. A simple 2 ply with the corriedale cross/silk batt:

A little overplied, but pretty. I enjoyed drafting, and I enjoyed not worrying about what I was making. I also liked spinning semi-woollen from a batt. It was less work than spinning from top. It's fired up my enthusiasm for a drum carder.

After the batt, I sampled some rambouillet (at top):

from top to bottom: fiery rambouillet from Touch of Twist; dyed cormo from Winterhaven Fiber Farm, and Interlacements dyed silk

The rambouillet was soft as a 2 ply laceweight, but felt rougher as the weight increased. Surprised me.

The cormo has nice bounce and because of the neppiness is uneven. I still need to experiment to find the right grist.

The silk was spindle spun while at MDS&W. I think I want to spin up some fingering weight for a lace shawl. I'd also like to try some silk singles.

Post fiery rambouillet, I jumped on the rambouillet/silk, which was so much softer:

Life is a bit hectic and probably won't go back to normal for a little while.

In good news, Gram is doing better. She fell several weeks ago, went into the hospital and then a nursing home where we thought she'd stay. But between a reduction in some medication and recovery from an infection, she's bounced back to better than she has been in months. She's moving around, she's not falling asleep, she's making conversation and jokes, she's a whole new woman. For now she's back at her apartment. It's good to see her doing better. She had a very sudden downturn for a while and now this sudden upturn. I haven't caught up yet! Thanks so much to everyone who sent well wishes and warm words, they were very much appreciated.

Here's the promised photo of the cormo fleece from MDS&W. Well, a lock. It's not the best pic; I'm still waiting for the sun to come out so I can take some more photos. Enough with the rain!

I warned you earlier in the week that I spent an obscene amount of money at MDS&W. If you're uncomfortable with that sort of thing, read no further. If, however, you lust after lovely handdyed and luxury fibers, and are happy to drool on your keyboard, read on.

At $5 per pound, I couldn't resist. Good practice for the cormo fleece. They had some yarns processed from their corriedale from 2 different processors, and one of them was so soft, I really wanted to bring some home. Really wanted. Gotta limit the yarn intake. Sigh.

Besides the above, also picked up a mess of stuff at Little Barn. Their luxury stuff was discounted about 25%, so I got some cashmere, yak, merino 125's...

6:00 am: Barbara, Pam and I hit the road. Well, sorta. I slept. I heard there was very little traffic. (Stop rolling your eyes, I drove a shift in the afternoon.)

We arrived in MD 9 hours later. Not bad! Most of the trip was slept away or spent driving, so there was very little knitting time. All that careful project planning.

The evening was spent relaxing. Ahhhh.

Friday

We arrived at the fair grounds by 9 am and headed straight for the Fleece Show area in the Main Exhibition Hall, a HUGE building soon to be filled to the brim with vendors and yarn and fiber. I nearly fell over. Instead, I started hopping around in excitement. Some vendors were setting up, some booths were empty. [picture me hopping from foot to foot clapping my hands]

Barbara was volunteering at the Fleece Show and Sale, and I hadn't heard back from the T-shirt sales volunteer coordinator, so I offered my hands to the Fleece Show folks. A really nice bunch of people. Really.

I walked through the grounds while they got set up, and OH. MY. GOD. I think photos will help here (taken Saturday morning before the rush). There was the Main Exhibition Hall, with two aisles:

There were 3+ barns full of vendors. There were tents along several of the main pathways. The slogan for MDSW should be, "Wait! There's more!"

Lots of Socks That Rock at The Fold (gone by noon) where Dagmar stopped me to say hi (hi Dagmar!):

More to the left:

Phew. Are ya pooped too? Back to our narrative.

Meanwhile, the Fleece Show folks were preparing to receive fleeces for show and/or sale. All kinds. I was mostly tied to the computer, whizzing through the database, adding registrations, printing records, finding info. As a web developer computers were second hand, but as a new spinner the whole fleece thing was a mystery. In fact, I had never seen a fleece before so I looked on with curiosity and clicked away.

From 12 to 5 it was a madhouse, a seemingly never-ending line of exhibitors with bagged fleeces. All told, about 500 fleeces and 100 exhibitors! It was great fun being in the thick of things, even if at an armslength and in front of a computer screen.

At 4 I left to meet Sheila of Wool2Dye4, one of the Dye-O-Rama sponsors who was taking a class. We had sent a few emails back and forth and when we realized we were both going to be at MDSW, we had to meet. We walked through the grounds and chatted, while all around us were more vendors setting up.

I headed back to the Fleece Show to find Judith McKenzie McCuin and Lois Geer judging fleeces. Another mystery! What makes a good fleece? So many breeds and characteristics. How do they keep it straight?

Post dinner break I got the chance to walk with Judith while she judged and I listened to her running commentary on fleece qualities and expected characteristics for each breed. Incredible! Judith is a real teacher who was happy to share her knowledge. I soaked it up. I learned about cotting, yolk stains, breaks, ram fleeces (man, what an odor, I recoil at the memory); saw examples of poor skirting, inconsistent crimping across the fleece, excessive belly wool. Saw some mighty fine fleeces, too! Border Leicesters, Karakuls, Jacobs, Shetlands with their double coats, Lincolns, Merinos... All the while putting away fleeces that didn't win and moving winning fleeces to be judged later for Best in Show awards. It was an incredible opportunity!

I asked around for what breed would make good lace weight yarn, since that's my latest spinning obsession. Cormo was recommended to me by several people. I hadn't tried Cormo before so I eyed the Cormo fleeces. Expensive. But oh so pretty.

As the night wore on I started dancing around. That's what I do when I get tired at night. Don't you? There were cries of "give her more work!" I guess most people don't dance when tired.

We didn't leave until 10 pm and man, I was pooped but elated. I had been in the thick of things, part of the team! Surrounded by friendly fiber loving folks, some of whom had sheep of their own (Rose, one of the volunteers, won 2nd prize for one of her fleeces!). I experienced fleece judging first hand and learned a LOT about fleeces and sheep! And I got a free T-shirt for volunteering. :)

Saturday

We arrived early again before the Fleece Sale began. What can I say, I bought a fleece. A Cormo! But not just any Cormo. THE Cormo:

The best Cormo out there happened to win Grand Champion Best in Show. Can you believe it?? The exhibitor was Alice Field of Foxhill Farm in Lee, MA, who also had a booth. Man, this fleece is a Beaut. In all ways. Almost no vegetable matter. Incredibly even crimp. Nice luster. Each lock is, in a word, amazing. I'll take photos tomorrow. Promise. Actually, I split the fleece, since 7 pounds seemed like more lace than I could spin in my lifetime, hehe. My mind still reels. Grand Champion fleece! Wheeeeee!!!

I helped out again at the Fleece Sale, organized the tables as fleeces sold, answered the easy questions and passed off the harder questions to Rose. Thanks, Rose! A little after noon when things slowed down I wandered out and watched a sheep shearing demonstration. Fascinating. And a little after 1:30 made my way to the blogger gathering. I said hello to Cara, and was found by Pixie with her cute T-shirt and her friend Lauren.

The party broke up early and I happily hung out with Judy and Linda for a while longer. I pushed some lovely Cormo/Alpaca (same vendor as my Cormo fleece!) on Judy and picked some up for myself. For practice. ;) We admired Brooks Farm yarns while Linda valiantly resisted its siren call. We stopped at The Merlin Tree where I got to try out the Hitchhiker wheel and meet Dave, its creator. Judy was a test spinner for the Hitchhiker, how cool is that? Dave is a fun guy.

Everywhere were sheepy cries and baaa's (actually, sounded more like meeehhhhh's; I practiced). Everywhere there had been people. I had heard MDSW was elbow-to-elbow crowded, and when I saw the crowds, I was not impressed. It wasn't a throng. It wasn't Tokyo's Shinjuku with its insane waves of pedestrians flooding into intersections. But when I tried to move. through. the. crowds. of. peo. ple. like. mud. so. slow. With so much to see, it was step step step, stop, step, stop, step step, stop. It's like cars passing an accident, everyone slows down and there's no getting past. Well, less gory, of course. It wore me out. I couldn't bear to take any photos once the crowds showed up. Not of the packed booths, not of the masses.

I did take a couple of sheepy pics for my niece:

and this big guy caught my eye:

I eventually found Barbara and Pam at the Spin-In, where I won a mug for being the first to complete a Word Search. :)

Sunday

We slept in. Aaaaahhhhh.

Once on the grounds, I hung out with Barbara while she skirted a couple of fleeces she had picked up and had a nice leisurely time hanging out and learning more about fleeces and the skirting process. A sheep-raising family stopped by and asked her opinion of a couple of fleeces. A man stopped by with part of his new great wheel and asked her if it was complete. I began to think we should have opened a booth a la Peanuts: "The Spinning Doctor Is In, Spinning Help $5" (inflation).

Shopped out, I decided to try a few wheels and see the animals. At The Yarn Barn, I talked to the very friendly and informative Jim, and tried the Kromski Symphony (niiice), 24" Schacht-Reeves (niiiiiiice), 30" Schacht-Reeves (niiiice), Lendrum Saxony (niiiice) and Kromski Minstrel (niice). Guess which will be my next wheel. ;) No no, not any time soon. Just sayin'.

I drew a crowd while "demo-ing" and heard a few parents explain "look, she's making yarn". A mother and daughter stopped by and I ended up pulling out my own spindle to show them how they could park and draft to start off. The girl was 8-10 years old and looked like she really wanted to learn to spin. She and I were both happy when my mini-demonstration changed the mood from "I don't know, honey" to "Well, let's look into getting a spindle, then!"

I ended the day walking through the barns and seeing the sheepies, and happily recognizing Jacobs, merinos, Romneys, Leicesters... well, when they were not shorn.

It was "See you next year!" to the Fleece Show volunteers and we were all happy to hear that! They're not a blogreading bunch, but in case they find their way here, thank you to Linda, Rose, Michelle, Carol, Judith, Lois and everyone else who made my weekend so memorable! I stink at names so I'm sorry if I left yours out.

Monday

It was obscene seeing just how much fiber I bought. Packing it in the car and unpacking it when Scott met me just off the Pike were, uh, moments I wish I could have shrunk and hid the haul. I did manage to limit yarn purchases to just 1 skein of Morehouse Farm Merino. That wasn't a big help, though.

It's good to be home! I'm not quite back yet. It's surreal, like Alice falling into another world and her life changing, expanding with every experience. My world has expanded. If I didn't volunteer I would have left MDSW thinking it was an incredible shopping experience and chance to meet a few folks and learn some sheepy things. I wouldn't feel the pull to make the 9 hour drive year after year. Volunteering and making new friends made all the difference for me. I'm looking forward to doing it again! (But, ahem, buying less.)

Oh yeah. All that knitting and spinning I thought I'd have time for? Ha ha ha. Hardly.

Thanks for your enthusiasm over h&g! I took notes while working on sock 2 in the hopes of writing up a pattern.

I've been trying to figure out what projects to bring to MD. 20-22 hours in a car, 4 nights and 3 days at a festival. That's a lot of time. Not that I can knit that long... can you? Plus, I get carsick. And sleepy. :) I can sleep about anywhere. I'm gifted that way.

My Addi's from Jeff Wonderland came in (yay!) so I've resuscitated my Jaywalkers (gosh I miss that morning light). The needles are European size 1's and 2's, which means they're between American 1's and 2's, and 2's and 3's. Which means they're bigger than what I was using; which means who knows what will happen to the fit? Who knows?? Not me. We'll just have to see, now won't we???

Yes, you've figured me out. I'm tired.

If you're going to MDSW, hope to see you there! If not, be back Tuesday!

Thanks for the nice comments on the socks, both handspun and Sockapaloooza! I'm calling the latter h&g, I think it'll be easier to type.

h&g

Progress on h&g... progresses. I stumbled quite a bit on the second design element, searched books and the Web for patterns/solutions, and swatched several different ideas before settling on a workable pattern. I'll take pikchas tomorrow morning. Meanwhile, here's where I left off last night, just past the heel:

I know! Isn't that cool? I'm catching a ride with someone from BASD who is volunteering at the festival, and therefore arriving early and leaving late. I didn't get my act together in time to sign up for classes (honestly, I was in a bit of a daze about it and it hadn't sunk in... until... oh... a day or two ago?), so I'll be wandering around, trying not to spend all my money. I don't want to think about how much stuff will be there to tempt me. Okay, I do. :)

So yeah, I'm feeling a bit intimidated by the whole thing. Getting there early and leaving late, like a hardcore fiber nut or something.

Nudge nudge. Wink wink.

I'm worried about meeting people, knowing what to say. I'm worried about not meeting people and wandering around alone.

I know, it will be fine. Great. Fantastic! Mindblowing!! Or at the very least, pretty darned cool.

special mayo

Speaking of cool, look what arrived in the mail yesterday:

Heinz mayonnaise! All the way from the U.K., sent by Cat in what is, perhaps, the first ever (and possibly last?) yarn-condiment trade. If the shipping weren't so high and the travel time so long, we'd have a real trade route here. As it is, I shall horde my condiments, even the mysterious Brown Sauce, and make it last.

There was some chocolate, too, but it didn't make the photo shoot. Hehe. Thanks so much, Cat!

but not least

To Julie: thanks so much for your comment, I am so flattered! Oh garsh, you're too sweet. But yes, go dye and spin something!